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Google Eyes Indonesia Office

Google plans to open offices in Jakarta, Indonesia by the end of 2011 according to spokesman Yopie Hidayat after talks between Eric Schmidt, Executive Chairman of Google and Indonesia’s Vice President Boediono . Indonesia is the largest online market in Southeast Asia, with 40 million online users which represent only an 18 percent Internet penetration rate. In 2010 Indonesia saw a growth of 48 percent and 22 percent growth in 2009 according to a Yahoo study.

“The Vice President and Google’s chairman held a meeting where Google expressed their interest to invest here and open a local office before 2012,” the spokesman Yopie Hidayat told Dow Jones Newswires.

In his keynote in the Regional Entrepreneur Summit (RES) in Bali , Indonesia earlier, Schmidt stated that he thinks that Indonesia can be the next Brazil. He added “Asia is the future, not the U.S.” Google opened an office in Singapore in May 2007 to manage its SE Asian operations and recently opened another in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia earlier this year.